Breaches – Page 7 – Cyber Law Watch

Ransomware attack hits the state of Georgia

Mar 18 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Ella Richards

Jackson County in Georgia has been held ransom after cyber-attackers deployed ransomware that crippled the government’s IT network for 2 weeks. Government officials resorted to coughing up $400,000 in bitcoin to pay the ransom, desperately trying to get out of the offline ‘pen and paper’ situation the attack had left them in. The suspected ransomware, ‘Ryuk’, caught the eye of the authorities at the end of 2018 after it started affecting the printing presses of Tribune Publishing. Due to the highly problematic decryption tool that is provided once the ransom is paid, Ryuk has the frightening capacity to destroy businesses which cannot survive in downtime or do not have restorable backups.

Read further about the incident here: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/georgia-county-pays-400000-to-ransomware-attackers-a-12159

Ratings agency starting to factor in Cyber risk profile

Mar 08 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Wendy Mansell

A recent report released by Moody’s Investors Services has shed some light on which business sectors are most at risk for cyberattacks.

After assessing 35 broad sectors it was concluded that banks, hospitals, security firms and market infrastructure providers face the highest risk. This was based on levels of vulnerability and the potential impact an attack would have.

The key determinative factor for these sectors is that they all rely strongly on technology and the vital role of confidential information in their operations.

The financial repercussions following a cyberattack in each of these sectors is extremely significant when considering the costs of insurance, penalties, consumer impact, potential litigation costs, R&D and technological impact to name a few.

The financial market is so high risk because of the financial and commercial data it holds and ever increasing fact that its services are being offered digitally, across multiple platforms i.e banking mobile/smart watch apps.

On a similar note because medical records are primarily collected and held in electronic form hospitals are very attractive to hackers given the sensitive nature of the data.

While the industries should not be a shock to the reader, it is important for participants in those industries and for suppliers to those participants to realise the risk profile that attaches to them and have procedures in place reflective of those risk levels. How one manages these risks in now likely to have indirect cost implications when you see ratings agencies like Moody’s assessing these sorts of areas.

Cyber attacks becoming common place: Different industries, similar methods

Feb 24 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Ella Richards

Popular car manufacturer Toyota has been hit by a malicious attack rendering their employees completely unable to access their emails. It is unclear whether any customer or employee data has been accessed, and Toyota is going to extensive efforts to discover the origin of the attack.

Staff who are powering on despite their access restrictions have been told to use face-to-face, phone and text communication until the emailing system is back online. Can you imagine!

Although the central server system is inaccessible, dealerships are continuing to operate normally besides being able to provide customers with the date they’ll receive their exciting new car.

Additionally, Melbourne Heart Group was subject to a cyber attack which completely locked them out of their filing system. 15,000 files were scrambled and held for ransom after a cyber crime syndicate hacked into their server, blocked all access to files and demanded a cryptocurrency payment be made.

Melbourne Heart Group is based at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, but the separation of their systems ensured that no Cabrini operations were affected. Even though a payment was made to decrypt their servers, information including patient details and sensitive medical records are yet to be recovered.

Payment in these situations is always troubling, dealing with faceless individuals, having to trade in cryptocurrencies in order to chart a course to the fastest resolution.

Major political parties join the Federal Parliament in the February data breach

Feb 21 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Ella Richards

Following an unprecedented surge in cyber attacks against Australian businesses, an attack on Australia’s political infrastructure was imminent. New information reveals that the cyber attack against the Federal Parliament earlier this year was accompanied by yet another directed towards the Liberal, Labour and National parties.

Bypassing the Castle Walls: Tactical Exploitation of America’s Vulnerable Grid

Feb 06 2019

By Cameron Abbott, Max Evans and Wendy Mansell

A recent Wall Street Journal Report has detailed how America’s utility grid was hacked. The Department of Homeland Security has named Russia as responsible for the overwhelmingly complex and threatening campaign.

The scheme targeted energy companies affiliated with the government and was carried out in a sophisticated manner by initially focusing on small firms within the utility supply chain.

Early techniques involved planting malware on the websites of online publications likely to be read by employees of companies within the energy sector. The hackers would lace the online publications with malicious content allowing them to steal usernames, passwords and infiltrate company systems.

A number of small firms fell victim to these tactics giving the hackers broad access to company networks. Fake emails were subsequently sent out on behalf of the affected firms containing forged and malicious Dropbox links which captured usernames, passwords and other credentials. Further they used fake personas to send emails and pretended to be job seekers, by sending resumes containing tainted attachments to energy companies.

The hackers continued this technique of sending malware emails on behalf of firms until they reached the top of the supply chain. It was reported that on at least 8 occasions the hackers infiltrated companies who had access to the industrial control systems that run the grid.

An alarming aspect was the number of affected companies that remained oblivious of the penetration. The report is a useful description of the variety of methods used to tempt employees to expose their credentials. All too easy to do. These same techniques are regularly used by more pedestrian hackers. Two factor authentication and regular password resets remain measures to limit these threats but so many organisations do not use them.

We repeatedly counsel that employees are the last line of defence for your organisation. Circulating the Report may make an interesting read to remind them of the variety of ways they can be seduced to click an incorrect link.

Is Microsoft giving us a window to our personal data?

Jan 14 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace

We often blog on this page about personal information being breached, data being hacked, systems being compromised – and tell cautionary tales of the difficulties businesses can experience if they experience a data breach.

So what if there was a good news story? A way to know what information there is out there about you, so that if it is compromised, you can take control? Microsoft may just be working on such a solution.

Multiple websites (see here and here) have now reported on Microsoft’s “Project Bali” – which, although still in a private testing phase is accessible to a lucky few, by invite only.

The Project Bali website reportedly describes the tech giant’s project as “a new personal data bank which puts users in control of all data collected about them” and will allow users to “store all data (raw and inferred) generated by them ..[and] to visualise, manage, control, share and monetise the data”.

It is reported that the project was borne from a Microsoft Research paper in 2014 that delved into the concept of “Inverse Privacy” – allowing consumers to access the data that any given business holds about them, increasing transparency, something consumers value.

In theory, Project Bali seems like a good antidote to the increasing number of privacy incursions we are seeing (such as this and this). However, whether the idea is commercialised and becomes publicly available, only time will tell. We will keep you posted.

Biggest data leak in German history

Jan 10 2019

By Rob Pulham, Warwick Anderson and Wendy Mansell

A 20 year old German man orchestrated a serious and sophisticated data breach which affected more than 1000 people.

The attack was focused on German and European politicians at all levels including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Frank Walter Steinmeier and hundreds of public figures and celebrities.

The 20 year old hacker took to Twitter to drip feed the information depicted as an advent calendar by releasing new data each day in December. Information exposed included contact details, credit card and financial information, chat records, photographs and other personal information.

Reuters’ reported that the hacker is a student who lives at home with his parents, has no formal computer education and was motivated by irritation over statements made by politicians and public figures.

The widespread nature of this attack has resulted in a number of government officials calling for tighter laws.

It is clear that no-one is safe from a data breach – even those elected representatives who enact the laws designed to protect against them.

Marriott Hotel reveals further details about records impacted by data breach; revises down number of affected records

Jan 09 2019

By Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Keely O’Dowd

Late last year the Marriott Hotel announced that it had suffered a data breach, which affected approximately 500 million guests who made a hotel reservation using its Starwood reservation system. Details about the data breach can be found in our previous blog.

Emergency warning system hacked

Jan 08 2019

By Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Allison Wallace

A new year, and a new hacking incident – this time, it was the Early Warning Network (EWN) – a text and email service used by councils around Australia to warn locals of emergency situations.

On its Facebook page, EWN stated that a hacker was able to access its system, sending out messages via text, email and landline stating that EWN had been hacked and that the receiver’s personal data was not safe. The message also included links to support email addresses and a website.

EWN said that the hack was quickly identified and systems shut down, with no-one’s personal information compromised during the attack. The attack is believed to have originated within Australia, involving compromised login details.

While EWN said that personal information was not compromised by this incident, it serves as a timely reminder for businesses to check and test their information security processes and data breach response plans – and if one isn’t in place, to implement one. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner reported that it received 550 notifications of data breaches from the time the notifiable data breach legislation commenced on 22 February 2018 to 30 September 2018.

If you’d like to find out more about the legislation, or what your business can do to protect itself, check out this 60-second video by Cameron Abbott.

So you plug your shiny Tesla in to charge…

Dec 20 2018

By Cameron Abbott and Wendy Mansell

…and suddenly you are at risk of starting fires.

We all know that these days the Internet of Things is a favourite for cyberattacks, with the latest target being home charging stations for electric cars.

Many home charging stations are controlled remotely by mobile apps, which seem to provide the perfect opportunity for hackers to cause harm.

Hackers cleverly can infiltrate an account and turn charging off or even worse, they may change the current to the extent it can start a fire.

Once again the industry needs to take security seriously for IoT and have the same diligence as IT networks now do.

Catagory:Breaches